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Profile: Deirdre Cross

2001 Photo and video production manager

Deirdre Cross '01

Photo and video production manager

A production manager at Forrest-Pruzan Creative, Deirdre Coulter Cross produces photo shoots and video for the company, which helps bring innovative games, toys and media entertainment to the market. With her husband Michael, she also co-owns Cross Films, along with fellow Greener and Academy Award-winning producer Susan LaSalle ’90. They produce documentary films, videos and commercials with major clients, including Alaska Airlines and Microsoft.

But it was a home documentary project featuring their cat, Cooper, which recently put Cross in the news. She and Michael wanted to give their cat, Cooper, the opportunity to document his wanderings through their neighborhood. They fitted him with a lightweight, waterproof camera and were amazed what they saw. His unique perspective, and the photos he produced, landed him on the Animal Planet television series “CATS 101,” striking a chord with artists, photographers and animal lovers all over the world.

His front-page article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer garnered more than one million web hits. He was featured on Good Morning America, in People magazine and the Los Angeles Times, and more than 400 people turned out for his gallery opening at Urban Light Studios in Seattle.

Cross studied documentary film at Evergreen, completing “Bison Winter,” an award-winning feature on the last wild herd of American bison, and she has done a great deal of nature filming and photography. “I had applied to other film schools, but I chose Evergreen because I wanted to be able to immerse myself in filmmaking,” she says. She was excited to be able to work with cameras and film equipment even in her first year. After completing the MediaWorks program, she spent her senior year on a college project called Media Space, working on web design and web video.

“The teacher-student ratio at Evergreen is so important – there are so many resources. You come out of Evergreen as yourself, but with a different way of thinking and a different way of learning throughout your life,” she says. “You need to have a college education, so go some place where they’ll give you a chance to explore and do.”

After graduation, Cross worked for a startup software company doing all their media and advertising. Once she was established, she and Michael started Cross Films, where Cooper the cat is now an official staff member. Her career has grown from there. “I feel so lucky to have gone to Evergreen because everyone was so good to me,” she says. “It was a wonderful education.”